Current Understanding of the Relationship Between Raw Milk Quality and Processed Dairy Product Quality
By: Sarah Muphy
The dairy team at Cornell recently published a comprehensive review in the Journal of Dairy Science, describing current understanding of the relationships between raw milk quality and processed dairy product quality (Murphy, S., N. Martin, D. Barbano, and M. Wiedmann. 2016. Influence of Raw Milk Quality on Processed Dairy Products: How do Raw Milk Quality Test Results Relate to Product Quality and Yield. J. Dairy Sci. 99:10128-10149). This article can be accessed at http://dx.doi.org/10.3168/jds.2016-11172.
This review covers a range of studies demonstrating that raw milk quality influences the quality of processed dairy products. The authors discuss research needs and emphasize the increasing importance of raw milk quality testing for levels of specific types of bacteria, offering an evidence-based perspective on the merits of investing in quality.
Key insights include:
* High quality raw milk has a positive impact on processed product quality and manufacturing efficiencies for dairy products including: cheese, pasteurized fluid milks, high-heat fluid milks, yogurt and cultured dairy products, and milk powders.
* Premium incentive payments are currently based on raw milk somatic cell and bacteria count levels below regulatory public health-based limits; other countries are steering the industry (e.g., the Netherlands) by offering farmers quality incentives for low levels of spore-formers in raw milk. Will the United States catch on?
